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Mar 2, 2013

A Frightful Night - All audiences - Flash Fiction Friday

I had a bit of trouble before I started working on this because I didn't really know what to do with the prompt "Fairy Tale with a Twist".

I hope you'll enjoy the read.

Frightful night.

For the first
time in years, they dared to venture out of the house and into the forest. It was
impressive and frightening to them, dark and powerful because of the threat
that lived within. The threat that loomed over their lives, commanding and
overwhelming. Unspoken and unseen but very real. Too often already had they
seen others venture into the forest without ever returning. But Edward was
certain they would return. He had
prepared well, the bag of breadcrumbs on his hip was full and the long dagger
in its sheath, sharp. He would leave a trail for them to follow home and if any
trouble arose, he would defend Jessica, his little sister, with his life.

Many long
hours of handling the dagger left him with enough confidence.

He could
and would protect his sister.

Jessica was
scared, but she did not want her big brother to know. If he could do it, so could she. She was a big girl now. If Edward wasn’t
scared, then she wasn’t scared either. She would make her big brother proud of
her.

Finally, he
would be proud of her.

She wanted,
no needed, him to be proud of her, so
she sucked up her fear and followed him out of the house. Close behind, just
half a step really, she followed as he led the way through the garden, down the
path and to the forest. The big, dark, looming forest. It grew taller and
darker with every step she took, but Edward would protect her. She knew it. She
believed it.

Edward would
protect her.

At the
outer edge of the forest, Edward stopped and looked at his little sister.

“Are you
scared?”

“NO!” Jessica yelped as if in pain.

It made Edward
grin.

“Then why
are you clutching my hand?”

She didn’t
even realize she was and let go quickly, a blush rising to her cheeks.

“Don’t worry,
little sis, nothing will happen to us.”

“I know.” she
said.

At least
she thought she said it even though no sound came across her lips.

Maybe she
shouldn’t have agreed after all.

“Come on.”

Edward dropped
a first breadcrumb on the path and stepped over it.

She
followed hesitantly, her eyes glued to the tiny crumb on the immense vastness
of the forest path.

They would
never see it.

She panicked
and ran after him, clutching his hand once more.

“I’m scared,
Eddy.”

She did not
need to tell him, he knew.

Her voice
trembled and her hands were sweaty.

That alone
told him how scared she was.

The way she
called him Eddy made it even worse.

Eddy,
teddy, teddy bear, big cuddly teddy bear.

“Don’t
worry, Jessi.”

She would
not let go.

“Here, you
drop the crumbs.”

“No.”

“Maybe you
should go back.”

“No.”

If she
wanted to go back, she had to let go of him and walk through the forest alone. Looking
back, she could barely see the edge of the trees.

No.

She wouldn’t
let go.

She reached
a hand into the bag of crumbs and dropped a few.

“Hey, not
so many. Just one is enough and not too close together.”

“We’ll
never find the way.”

“We’ll find the way.” Edward promised.

He tightened
his grip on her hand and continued walking.

Every few
steps, he felt her reach into the bag and drop a crumb.

The forest
grew darker around them and Edward felt his sister’s fear crawl into him. He
refused to let it stop them.

He was
going to prove there was nothing to
be afraid of. How could he do that if he let Jessica’s fear into his own heart?

Jessica’s
fear was now his own and he felt his heart pound furiously in his chest.

“How will
we find our way back?” Jessica asked in alarm.

“There is
no way back!”

The harsh,
raspy voice startled them and Edward’s dagger was in his hands before he even
realized he was reaching for it.

“What are you going to do with that little thing?”

“I’m not
afraid of you.” Edward called, the tremor in his voice and the trembling of his
outstretched arm betraying his words.

“I think you are, little boy.”

Suddenly,
she was there.

A dark
shadow with fiery eyes. Her hooked nose and evil snarl visible under the large,
black, pointy hat. Her hands protruded like spiky claws from the long, black
robe she wore and behind her, a black cat licked its chops.

Jessica screamed
in horror and she laughed at the fear she caused.

It was an
evil laugh, echoed through the forest and coming back at them from all sides.

“Come here, little girl.”

“Stop!” Edward
shrieked, “Get away from her!”

He lashed
out and – more to his surprise than to hers – actually cut her with his dagger.

She hissed
in pain but did not pull away. Instead, she struck with her bleeding hand,
leaving a sticky trail on his cheek and across his mouth.

Edward fell
to the ground and curled up in fear as the shadow fell over him, threatening to
swallow him whole.

“Are you afraid now, little boy?”

Her hand
hit him again, leaving more blood in his hair, but then she turned away.

“Come here, little girl.”

She grabbed
Jessica’s arm, making her scream again, feeling the bony fingers dig into her
skin.

“There isn’t much to eat, but the two of you
will have to do.”

She turned
again, finding Edward no longer cowering on the forest floor.

4 comments:

Oh my goodness, it's a full Friday later and I've only just realized I forgot to read your fairy tale! I was so enamored with both of my ideas for the prompt last week that I went on a writing rampage and wrote a three part mini series on the second idea. Okay, I'll go and read yours now, and come back tomorrow to hopefully see your nonfic this week. :)

I saw you had lots of fun with last week's prompt last night, but haven't had the time to read yet. I'll see if I can squeeze it in over the weekend because the titles already appealed to me. I'm betting the stories themselves will be equally appealing.

I'm not familiar with it either, I actually had to look up the character names for this one. But it was definitely intentional. That's the twist to the "Hanzel and Gretzel" story. Not sure it could be called a "Fairy Tale" though. Oh well.